


Hellbound and Down

by Kita_the_Spaz



Category: Welcome to Hell - All Media Types
Genre: Kink Meme, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 13:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5092340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kita_the_Spaz/pseuds/Kita_the_Spaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a football injury that did it. Suddenly Zack was aware of the new kid with the weird fashion sense that was hanging around Jonathan Combs. It wasn’t until he saw someone walk through the new kid, that he realized things were a whole lot stranger than he imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Concussions and Confusion

**Author's Note:**

> So, I have to apologize. Since the end of Sockathan Week, I’ve been stuck out in my own personal version of hell, obligatory family time in the land of more livestock than people and NO internet.
> 
> So in the spirit of that apology, I present the first chapter in what has become quite the epic. Based on a prompt from the wthkinkmeme.
> 
> (also anyone who commented on my Sockathan Week fics, I will get to answering your comments, Promise!)

 

It was a football injury that did it. Zack Melto had actually been on the sidelines during practice, wrestling with his padding, helmet resting by his feet while he fought to shift his recalcitrant protective gear into place. It had been raining hard lately and Zack wasn’t going to risk a season-ending injury because of mud.

_”Look out!”_

Unfortunately, the warning came a moment too late. Zack looked up just in time to take a fumbled throw right to the jaw. That would have been the end of it— a bruise and a laugh about Neil’s fail— if Doug, lunging to try and catch the errant toss, hadn’t slipped in the wet grass and plowed right into Zack and the bench.

Zack’s head hit the bench with a sickening crack that he could feel reverberate through his entire body. Agony swamped his senses and dragged him down into a darkness filled with confused images and pain.

He woke in the hospital two days later, seeing double and horribly sick to his stomach. The doubled vision brought along its friend, vertigo, which kicked in when anything moved. It caused Zack to lose the meager contents of his stomach all over the shoes of the nurse who’d come into his line of sight to check his vitals.

Thankfully, he’d been released a little over a week later with the doubled vision mostly gone; but he was sidelined for the remainder of the season because of the hairline crack in his skull. He returned to school two days later, wearing a baseball cap to hide the shaved patch in his dark hair and the bandages, and in spite of the recurring headaches; brutal things that screwed with his vision and balance.

It was after one such agonizing headache that Zack noticed the colorful and oddly-dressed kid hanging near constantly around Jonathan Combs. Was he wearing a _skirt?_ And who was he; a new student that had come in while Zack was in the hospital? Zack was pretty sure he’d have remembered seeing _that_ fashion sense before.

Leaning against the wall in the locker hall, Zack watched the new kid following Combs around, always just a pace or two behind him. He paused in his observation to rub an eye. Damn these headaches anyway and the weird things they did to his vision. For a minute it had looked like the new kid was floating inches above the linoleum floor.

Zack barely talked to Jonathan Combs. Not that he wouldn’t have liked to, just that put-upon, disinterested expression made it hard to find words. The last time he’d tried, Jonathan had blinked at him, taken two steps back and turned and walked away fast, hunching his shoulders almost defensively under his gray hoodie. Ever since then, as soon as he spotted Zack, Combs put his headphones on and hurried in another direction.

The new kid said something, and Combs tossed his blond head back in a startled laugh.

Zack felt his breath catch. For an instant, careless and laughing, Jonathan Combs had looked stunning. It was a startling realization, especially of the warm feeling blooming in his stomach.

Jonathan chuckled again and the warm curl in Zack’s gut went sharp with anger. How had the new kid gotten that close to Combs? Gritting his teeth against the resurgence of his headache, Zack stalked off toward the nurse’s office to get another dose of his painkillers.

A week of observation combined with his slowly improving health, and Zack knew something was off. He noted that besides himself and Combs, no one paid any attention to the new kid, most of them acting like he didn’t even exist. In grade school, before he’d put on a growth spurt, Zack had been ignored and overlooked himself, but not like that. And he was pretty damned sure he’s seen the kid floating more than once, and this time he couldn’t blame the headaches.

It wasn’t until he saw Brenda Something-or-other, the really annoying cheerleader who propositioned anything that breathed, walk right through the new kid that he knew things were a lot stranger than he’d bargained for.

Zack considered himself a smart enough guy. His grades were consistently in the low B and high C range and he accepted new changes in his worldview with equanimity. He hadn’t even batted an eye when he’d found his history teacher under the bleachers with a cheerleader and the running back and not a whole lot of clothes or dignity between the three of them. But this was a new one.

He spent the next day subtly stalking Jonathan Combs and his intangible friend. After school, he got close enough to actually hear them when Jonathan stopped to grab the hoodie he’d accidentally left in the locker room after gym.

Zack hid on the other side of a bank of graffiti-tagged gym lockers, straining his ears to hear the conversation between Jonathan and—

“Sock, give it a rest.”

“But think about it. No more trig, no more boring classes or anything. And hey, how many phobias can there be to alphabetize?” The newly-dubbed Sock wheedled. “And there are lots of ways to do it that won’t even hurt... much. Or for long.”

“Like that’s going to convince me to off myself, idiot.” Though the tone was scornful, Jonathan didn’t even sound angry or frightened, just mildly annoyed.

Zack’s stomach turned over, a hard little knot forming in his throat. He hoped he had just imagined that.

“What will convince you, then?” Sock had asked, earnestly. “I’m sure if I asked, the boss knows lots of painless ways to— erm, punch your own ticket.”

Jonathan’s laugh was a short, sharp bark. “Like I’d trust anything the devil himself said. Seriously?” he snorted. “And there’s nothing you can do to convince me.”

“Don’t call him that. He seriously doesn't like when people call him that. His name’s Mephistopheles.” Sock’s voice subtly changed, dropping an octave and developing a darker tone that sent an uncomfortable shiver down Zack’s spine. “I’m sure there’s something we can do to convince you.”

“Seriously, dude, back off. That’s creepy as fuck.”

“Aww, c’mon, Jonathan!”

Zack heard the door close behind Jonathan, but couldn’t move for a moment, leaning against the lockers and trying to catch the breath that had fled his lungs. When his legs decided to work again, he all but ran out of the locker room. He continued moving numbly, not even sure where he was going, his mind playing the overheard conversation on endless repeat.

How he’d ended up at the local library, he’d never know, but the cool, quiet building seemed like a good refuge from his whirling, confused thoughts. Zack wandered among the stacks, utterly lost in thought. He didn’t know how long he’d brooded when he found himself staring at a book that he’d normally never have touched, a weighty text on religions, specifically the incarnations of evil in religion.

Breathing a slow sigh, he picked up the book and flipped to the index in the back, looking up the name Sock had used. _Mephistopheles: Originally attributed to the germanic Faust; a demon who collects (or corrupts) souls for the devil. Later versions have been given as variations on Satan himself, though the name in the original folklore was only attributed to a minor demon; a messenger for the great deceiver. However, the name has developed far more connotations in popular culture. See: Demon; Devil; Satan; Faust (germanic folklore)._

The book slipped out of shaking fingers and landed with a dull thud at Zack’s feet. He stared unseeing at it, taking in the wood-block illustration of a man with a tiny devil on one shoulder, whispering in his ear, without really seeing it.

Was it really even possible? Was this Sock character a demon, sent to collect Jonathan’s soul for the devil? That thought spurred him into motion and he searched the library’s catalogue for demonic hauntings. There were very few books on that, all more closely related to demonic possession. He didn’t think that Sock was possessing Jonathan, because as far as he could tell, Jonathan still seemed to be himself. Arming himself with a stack of books that looked like his best bets, Zack retreated to a table in the farthest corner of the library. Digging in his backpack, Zack dragged out a notebook and settled himself down. When the librarian called closing, he’d half-filled the notebook with notes and half-formed plans.

There were several proscribed ways of driving out demons, but the most common was an exorcism. Zack wasn’t on real good terms with any priests, though. One stupid mistake involving a football and a stained-glass window and, for men of God, priests sure held a grudge forever. But there were a few ideas that might help.

It took him another week, surreptitiously watching Jonathan out of the corner of his eyes and praying that _demon_ hadn’t really gotten to him yet, to gather everything he needed. The hard part would be finding a way to get Sock away from Jonathan long enough.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard at all. All it took was a glare directly at Sock and a crooked finger.

The demon boy glanced back at Jonathan, who was bobbing his head in time with the music on his headphones, eyes shut. Blinking, he drifted over to Zack, eyeing him warily. “You can see me?”

Zack nodded, shooting a cautious glance back at the distracted Jonathan, and motioned Sock closer, ducking around the corner.

Sock followed, green eyes narrowed. “How is it you can see me?” he frowned suspiciously, puffing out his round cheeks. “You’re no demon, and you don’t smell like an angel either.”

Zack found himself surprised into a laugh. “Angel’s have B.O.?” He kept walking, praying curiosity would keep the demon following.

Sock was thankfully easily distracted because he grinned, drifting along behind Zack. “Sorta. It’s not really even a smell, I don’t think, because there’s nothing else it really smells like.” He tilted his head, one brow climbing up into his ridiculous bangs. “It’s hard to describe, but it’s just like your nose goes ‘Oh, hello, angel’ or something.”

Zack nodded, stepping into the quiet of one of the music rooms, this one old, with acoustics gone out of true by age and decay. It was used to store everything music related, from an old guitar with broken pegs to the stacks of new music books. Up until yesterday the room had been crowded, with things stacked haphazardly anywhere there was a free bit of floor. But now, there was a clear space in the middle of the floor and that was where Zack led Sock.

Sock glanced around with vague disinterest before focusing his attention back on Zack. “But that still doesn’t explain why you can see me.”

Zack shrugged carelessly, sneaking one hand out of his pocket with a fistful of salt to close the circle he’d made late last night. All the books had agreed that pure salt was anathema to demons, and a circle of it could keep them bound. “Had a head injury. First I thought I was hallucinating, until I realized Jonathan could see you too.”

Zack took a fast step backward, closing the circle around Sock with his fistful of salt crystals.

Sock tipped his head to one side, a smirk beginning to curl up his lips. “A head injury, really? Of all the things that might cause you to see me, it had to be a knock upside the head?” he chortled, drifting closer. “And table salt? What were you hoping to do, make my blood pressure go up?” He didn’t seem disturbed by the ring of salt at all.

Panicked a bit, Zack took another hasty step back and threw the remainder of his handful of salt at Sock.

Sock stopped abruptly, and looked as surprised as Zack felt. “How did you do that?”

Zack didn’t know but wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He grabbed a bottle out of his pocket; holy water swiped from the baptismal font in the Our Sisters of Eternal Vigilance chapel two blocks down. He flung a few drops at Sock, pleased to see him actually flinch away, hissing in surprise.

One of the drops fell on the line of salt and blue-white light blazed up from the uneven circle.

Zack felt a moment of triumph rush through his veins like adrenaline. _It was working!_ He grabbed for his notebook, flipping it open to the page he’d marked. He had no idea how long the circle would hold the demon, so he had to work fast. He’d copied the Latin straight out of a book on exorcisms and he chanted it frantically, hoping he wasn’t mangling the pronunciation.

Sock’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

With every word Zack spoke, the blue light intensified, spiralling up toward the ceiling and whirling like a contained hurricane around Sock.

_”No!”_ Sock shouted, his voice cutting through the chant. “Stop!”

Echoing on the end of Sock’s scream came another. ”What the _hell_ are you doing, Melto?”

Jonathan’s elbow slammed hard into Zack’s solar plexus.

Zack staggered backwards, gasping. _No!_ He had to finish it. Had to save Jonathan from the demon that even now was beating frantic fists against a swiftly shrinking circle of blue radiance. Sucking in a pained breath, Zack spit out the last words of the exorcism ritual as fast as he could force them out.

Jonathan lunged past him, reaching a hand out and into the circle. Fear darkened his blue eyes to black and his mouth shaped a name.

Blue-white light flared and incandesced into something too bright to bear. There was a soundless explosion and Zack felt himself picked up and thrown hard into a pile of boxes. Darkness closed in on him with a crushing weight.


	2. You want to what?

When the black of his vision receded, Zack still felt like the air weighed too heavily. He couldn’t draw in enough of it. Gasping and coughing, he struggled to sit up under the crushing weight.

“You can’t die just yet,” a far too chipper voice purred in his ear. 

The constriction of his chest eased a little, and Zack coughed and spit bloody mucus onto the stained, scorched carpet. He managed to drag burning eyes open and slowly colors bled back in. 

Venomous green eyes glared down at him.

Sock was crouched in midair, fixing him with such a hateful glower that in spite of the pain, Zack wanted to do nothing so much as run as far and as fast as he could. He scrabbled for a grip on the singed carpet, trying to gather his legs under him.

Sock seemed to sense the train of his thought and leaned down to snarl into his face. “No running away, jock-boy. You made this mess, and you’ll help me fix it if you want to keep breathing.”

Zack had honestly never been very frightened of Sock, even when he’d figured that he was indeed a demon, but this angry, glaring creature was terrifying. “W-what?”

Sock shot him a withering look, scorn and rage in every line of him. “I don’t know what you were trying to do, but you goofed it up royally.” He inhaled, the very tip of his tongue protruding between his teeth. “Brimstone and hellfire. Only one place with that particular smell. You just sent Jonathan to hell, idiot.”

Zack coughed again, his chest aching with a sharp new pain. “I couldn’t have!” he protested, aghast. “I was trying to banish you!”

Sock leaned in close, his eyes narrowed to acid-green slits. “Well, I’m still here and Jonathan’s not, so that’s pretty much proof you screwed it up.” Sock snorted. “I don’t know what you did, but we have to get him back and quick. Hell is no place for the living.” For just an instant, the demon looked almost... frightened?

Zack managed to get his legs under him and scooted away from Sock. “G-get him back? How can you get someone back from hell?”

Sock slumped in midair. “We’ll actually have to go there. A summoning only works for demons; there’s no way to summon a living human out of hell.”

Now that Sock was no longer glaring at him, Zack found he could think a little more clearly. “How can we go there?” he asked. “You said it’s no place for the living.”

Sock lifted his head to stare at him consideringly for a long moment. “I’m a demon, I belong there. You, on the other hand...” He chewed on his bottom lip with sharp teeth. “Well, I have an idea, but you won’t like it. _I_ don’t like it.”

Zack swallowed. “W-what is it?”

“Possession.” Sock answered simply, shrugging his shoulders.

Zack’s stomach twisted in revolt.”You mean you want to possess me?”

Sock pulled a disgusted face. “Ew, no. The very last thing I _want_ to do is inhabit you. But to get you into hell, I _have_ to. And you have to agree to it, or I won’t be able to do it.”

“You’re not possessing me!” Zack’s denial was automatic.

The glare returned and was leveled at him. “Then Jonathan remains in hell, _where you sent him,_ and I take you apart piece by piece.” Sock’s smile was bloodthirsty and vicious.

After reading up on anything to do with demons, Zack thought he had a pretty clear idea of what possession involved, and none of it was pretty. And most of the books had agreed, once a demon had gotten into someone, there was no getting them out short of a full-out exorcism. “No,” he hissed at Sock. “You’re not taking me over! I’m not going to let you shove me out of my own body.”

To his surprise, Sock just rolled his eyes. “Shoulda known you’d be the dumb jock stereotype from the first. Look, pecs-for-brains, it doesn’t work like it does in the movies. We borrow a human body for a while, but there are strict rules and a set time limit on how long a possession can last. The very longest we can inhabit a willing host is two weeks, tops, and most of the time not even that.” Sock hovered close to the ceiling, his attention turned inwards. “I just need to get you into hell so you can help me get Jonathan out safely. Then you’re free. I promise. Do we have a deal?”

“How are we going to get Jonathan out?” Zack asked cautiously. He wasn’t about to trust anything Sock said, but in _one_ thing, he knew Sock was right. It was his fault Jonathan was in hell.

Sock looked pensive, chewing on his bottom lip again. “I think I know a way but it’s dangerous. Not anymore dangerous than having a bunch of demons realize there’s a living, mostly-uncorrupted human soul among them, but it’s still going to be really hazardous.”

“But we can get him back?” Zack swallowed nervously. His every instinct screamed against him actually contemplating this, but Jonathan’s life weighed heavily against those primal fears.

Still looking gravely preoccupied, Sock nevertheless nodded firmly. “Yes. We can, and we will.”

Zack wet his dry lips nervously. It went against everything he knew, but— “Fine. I’ll give you permission to possess me, _but_ only until we rescue Jonathan. Once he’s safe, deal over and you stay away from me.”

Sock smiled widely, some of the tension going out of his shoulders. “Deal accepted. What’s your name, anyway? I heard Jonathan call you Melto.”

“Zack, Zack Melto.”

Sock chuckled. “I suppose it’s better than calling you jock-boy. You can call me Sock.”

“Why are you named after a piece of laundry?” Now that he had actually made the deal, Zack felt a whole lot calmer. He knew it was a false sense of peace, but he’d already come this far. 

“Long story and not really important. Jonathan is the most important thing right now. We should get going.”

Zack nodded and stood on still shaky legs. “So, how do we do this?”

Sock smiled slowly, looking like a self-satisfied cat. “You close your eyes.”

Nervously, Zack obeyed. It felt like an icy wind sweeping over him, chilling him to the very core. He wasn’t aware of gasping or opening his eyes, but he heard his indrawn hiss of breath and found himself staring at a spot on the wall that looked suspiciously like old blood. His nostrils flared with a deep inhale and he could smell the stink of brimstone and an odd sulfurous reek that defied rational description.

 _“That’s hellfire,”_ Sock’s voice purred in his head, “It smells a little like an angel does, only, y’know, more stinky. And that **is** a blood stain on the wall. I can taste the emotions behind it.” 

Zack’s tongue flickered between his teeth and it was by far the creepiest thing he’d ever experienced. He could still feel his body and his muscles moved like normal. It felt like he was in control, but his body was moving to someone else’s commands. “I didn’t want to know that!” he protested. He could hear his own voice, but his mouth wasn’t moving.

He could feel his own lips curving into a smile. “What? You don’t want to know about the mixture of hate and lust that left that stain?” This time, Sock’s words came from his mouth. He could feel them resonating in his throat. Sock’s voice sounded odd, higher-pitched than Zack’s but still in his range.

“No!” Zack protested, flustered. “Jonathan—”

For a hellish moment, he felt his entire body freeze, unmoving and painfully rigid. His lungs ached for air and his heart throbbed a painful tempo against his ribs.

Then he went lax and for a second, Zack was in control of his own muscles. Sucking in a gasping breath, he backed away from the wall and heard Sock heave a juddering sigh. 

“Right. We have to go.” Sock’s resumed control seemed a little shaky, but he managed the zipper of Zack’s letterman jacket deftly enough, hanging it over the neck of the busted guitar.

“What are you doing?” Zack couldn’t help but question.

He felt his mouth twitch into something that wasn’t a smile. “Hopefully, setting us a path back. Besides, where we’re going, you don’ need no stinkin’ jacket.”

Zack might have laughed at Sock’s hilariously bad impersonation, but his stomach twisted sideways and made a valiant break for freedom. His vision blurred and washed out in sickening hues of yellowish-green. The air was hot and dry enough to make his throat hurt.

 _“Welcome to hell, Zack.”_ Sock’s voice rang in his skull, reverberating in the spaces between neurons.


	3. What 'under renovation' really means

Zack wasn’t sure what he expected, seeing as he had all the conflicting images from his desperate reading binge, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t this. He stood on the lip of a gaping chasm, hellishly lit with eye-searing shades of green and yellow. In the depths, he could see figures working, and oddly enough, most of them were wearing fluorescent orange workman’s vests and yellow hardhats. The bizarre thing was how some areas seemed to fade in and out of reality, one moment solid and the next, just a blank space of white nothingness that blurred the edges of things around it. Nothing seemed set, features moving around the landscape even as he tried to focus on them, even some of the workers vanishing and reappearing somewhere entirely different. 

“Wha-what’s going on?” Zack asked uncertainly.

“Hell’s being renovated.” Sock replied matter-of-factly. “Things are a little... odd... around here.”

 _Odd_ was a serious understatement. Off to the left of the worksite below, there was a large group of business people in sharply pressed suits, looking like they had just walked out of a high-end office building. They seemed to be in serious negotiation with a mixed group, ranging the entire gamut from inoffensive girl-next-door, if one ignored the maniacal look in her eyes, to a bruiser with way too many tattoos and bloodstained clothes. 

In the middle distance, there appeared to be a gray river and a single boat with a cowled skeleton poling down it. There were several small demons _(children?)_ playing a game of fetch with these enormous, sleek black hounds with massive teeth and rows of barbed spikes on their powerful shoulders. Zack noted queasily that the stick they were fetching was a severed human leg. 

And that was all if one ignored the randomly vanishing areas. “How are we going to find Jonathan down here?” Zack mumbled.

His lungs expanded with Sock’s heaved sigh. “I’m assigned to him. That means I’ll have a connection to him until he bites it.” He raised Zack’s hand to point toward a vast rolling plain that appeared to be covered in pale flowers and paler spirits. It also seemed to be suffering the most from the random spots that faded from existence, whole swaths of it fading into and out of nothing. “He’s somewhere that way.”

Sock stepped off the edge of the chasm.

Yelping, Zack had a moment of sheer terror before he realized that he was floating. 

There was a disdainful snort in his head. “I’m a demon, remember? I can fly.”

“Dude, kindly remember I’m human!” Zack snapped. “We tend to fall!”

Sock’s startled laugh vibrated through his chest. “Good point.”

They drifted towards the field for a long moment of silence, before Zack could find the words to formulate what he wanted to say. “So, if you’re trying to drive Jonathan to suicide, which is supposed to be a sin and will just wind up landing him right back here, how come you’re so frantic to get him back?”

Sock stopped in midair, closing their eyes and hanging there in silence and the darkness behind Zack’s eyelids. “Like you’re not just as worried to get him back, jockstrap! Don’t think I didn’t notice your little obsession,” Sock retorted, before heaving a sigh into the dry air. “Look, if he dies and comes here, he’ll belong; be one of us. Heck, the boss already has a job lined up for him. But right now, he’s still alive and relatively untouched by darkness.” Sock swallowed hard, Zack’s throat convulsing with the force of it. “You have to understand. Demons can sense these things, and it’s like... like candy, or a drug— something bad for you, but that you can’t _not_ want. Right now, he’s vulnerable and... and the most attractive thing around these parts. They’ll do worse t-than kill him.”

Zack could feel his heart crawling up his throat, a cold, hard lump settling in the pit of his stomach. He realized that it wasn’t only his emotions that was making his chest hurt. Some of Sock’s very real concern was bleeding through. He wouldn’t have thought a demon cared that much about anything, but Sock did.

Sock heaved a sigh and opened Zack’s eyes, staring off into the shifting landscape. “We have to save him, Zack,” he said quietly, sober as a judge.

“Yeah,” Zack agreed. “So let’s do this.”

Sock suddenly jinked sideways in the air, leaving Zack’s stomach far behind.

Zack cursed until Sock glanced back over their shoulder. The air where they had been burned a brilliant white, expanding toward them.

Sock dropped down toward the ground and put on speed, arcing away from the patch of sky that had suddenly ceased to be.

When they had reached what Sock apparently considered a safe distance, he stopped, resting his hands on Zack’s knees and panting. He laughed weakly. “That was a rush!”

“One I could have done without.” Zack growled. He could feel his heart racing. “Does hell regularly try to kill you?!”

Relaxing in the air, Sock still kept a wary eye on the patch of sky-that-wasn’t. “That won’t kill you,” he replied absently. “Drive you mad, maybe. I got caught in one once. It’s like you’re stretched out and seeing a million different things at once, a bunch of possibilities or dimensions or something. Really weird and kinda painful.”

“What is it?” Zack wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but it seemed prudent to ask.

Sock shrugged. “Dunno, but it’s ‘cause hell’s under renovation.”

“Wonderful,” Zack sighed. “Can we get going, please?”

Sock nodded and set off again, heading toward... well, Zack wasn’t sure of anything around here, much less directions, but hopefully to where Jonathan was.

Sock didn’t set down again until they had reached the far edge of the field of pale flowers. He paused and looked back uneasily. “I’m glad we could fly over that. This place is creepy enough, even without the vanishing bits.” He turned his attention ahead. The land gave way to a series of arroyos, deep gullies that wound and twisted in a labyrinthian maze. They were so deep that the ambient greenish glare could not penetrate, casting the bottoms of the canyons in stygian darkness.

Zack didn’t like the looks of it at all. “We’re not going in there, are we? I mean, you can just fly over it.”

Sock huffed a wry laugh and shook Zack’s head. “Yes, I can and fully intend to fly over it. But once we find Jonathan we have to stop here...”

“Why?”

“Our path out of hell starts here.”

“Wait— What?” Zack protested. “You can’t mean to tell me there’s a way out of hell somewhere down in those!”

Sock huffed. “No, but it lives there.” He leapt into the air again and refused to answer any more of Zack’s increasingly annoyed questions.

They were flying over what had to be one of the creepiest places yet, an area of flat-topped rock pillars, widely spaced apart in some sort of brownish murk. Each pillar bore a tiny, dying fire, with skeletal figures huddled around the flames. Suddenly, Sock hesitated, glancing down into the brown fog.

“Sock?” Zack questioned nervously. “Please tell me he’s not down there?”

Zack could feel Sock’s uncertainty. “No, but we’re close,” he replied at last, chewing absently on Zack’s bottom lip. “I don’t like this. There’s something wrong...”

“What?” Zack was starting to get really worried now. It wasn’t enough that hell was out to kill them or drive them mad, but now something was up that was concerning Sock in a serious way.

“I don’t know,” Sock’s voice was abstracted. “We’re very close to the frozen lake, and that would be a very bad place to find Jonathan.”

Zack thought about the mostly arid area around them and wondered briefly how a frozen lake could survive in the dry heat. “Why? Personally something cool sounds a lot more hospitable than here.”

He could almost feel Sock’s annoyed stare. “Does Jonathan-cicle means anything to you?”

Zack would have swallowed if he had control of his own body. “It’s that bad?”

Sock sighed, chewing nervously on Zack’s bottom lip again. “Worse.” 

Zack felt a shiver crawl up his spine, and knew it wasn’t only his own fear that caused it.

Frowning, Sock dove down among the pillars, skimming just above the surface of the noxious brown fog. He darted and dodged the stone plinths with a natural agility Zack would not have believed it he weren’t witness to it.

Faster than he would have thought possible, they emerged from the field of stone towers. Sock darted right to avoid another of the vanishing pieces of sky and was nearly bowled out of the air by an icy gust. Tumbling, it took him a moment to right himself.

Zack had to fight down the terror of the fall and the phantom sensation of his stomach being left far behind before he could focus on where they were. Beneath them, a forest, and an ancient one if the size of the trees was anything to go by, groaned under the weight of a thick blanket of snow. Cold wind whistled among the branches and trailed over Zack’s skin like an icy kiss. After the arid heat, it was hard to believe this wasteland of snow and ice.

Sock paused, craning Zack’s head around in what seemed to be an attempt to get his bearings. “We’re close to the frozen lake,” he muttered aloud. “But Jonathan’s closer. That means he’s not there.” He heaved a great sigh of relief that shuddered all the way through Zack’s body.

He dropped down among the trees, weaving through the thick trunks with the same ease that he’d used to navigate the stone towers earlier. Beneath the shadows of the forest giants, the wind was even colder, biting harshly at Zack’s face and exposed forearms.

“I’m really beginning to hate this place,” Zack grumbled. “You said I wouldn’t need my jacket.”

Sock’s laugh was thin and sheepish. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t expecting to be this close to the frozen lake, either. And now you see why the boss wants to renovate. He doesn’t like what hell’s become.”

“I can see why.”

Sock’s attention was on the forest around them, and he started at an eerie, echoing wail, almost reflexively darting into the higher branches.

Zack agreed with the move; there was something in the cry that spoke of a creature that delighted in pain and death. “What was that?”

“Nothing we want to meet,” Sock answered shortly. He stayed among the high branches, moving more slowly and scanning the reaching shadows beneath the trees. Some of them moved independently of the wind that rustled the snow-draped branches.

Another weird, warbling shriek came from directly behind them and Sock sprang forward like he’d been shot out of a cannon. _“Crudcrudcrudcrudcrud...”_

Sock didn’t look back, but Zack could swear he felt hot breath on the back of his neck. They zoomed through the trees at breakneck speed, narrowly avoiding collisions. Zack yelped, feeling something snag on his shirt, ripping one sleeve into tattered ribbons. He didn’t see it, only the cold touch of it raking painfully over his skin.

Amazingly, Sock managed more speed. He was panting, rapid, gasping breaths of the icy air stabbing into Zack’s lungs. His obvious fear only fueled Zack’s terror.

Abruptly, they broke from the cover of the trees, the icy ground sloping away sharply. Sock glanced back once, allowing Zack a chance to see what was following them. There were dozens of them, too many to count, and there was no conformity in their appearance. Each of the gibbering, wailing monstrosities was as unique to its neighbor as it was any of the others. Teeth, claws, horns, beating wings, limbs ranging from none to something that seemed to be nothing but clawed extremities— and eyes, so, so very many glaring eyes... all of them fastened on _them._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a better understanding of my mental canon involving hell, see [this](http://kita-the-spaz.tumblr.com/post/127393691587/headcanons-of-hell-literally) post.


	4. Frozen Over

Sock swallowed hard and threw himself forward, accelerating down the slope at breakneck speed. The jumbled riot of mismatched creatures fell behind, even the ones with wings hampered by the close proximity of the others.

Zack could see what Sock was aiming for. The ground gave way to a gleaming expanse of ice, throwing back the light of the greenish radiance that was the sky. Sock threw everything into reaching it before the grasping claws of the monstrosities reached them. They darted out over the expanse of strangely clear ice, and Zack absently noted that if there was a bottom, he couldn’t see it, only dark shapes hovering in the glassy blue-green depths.

Sock slowed to a stop in midair, heaving great gasping breaths that stabbed their way into Zack’s lungs like icicles. They hovered there, Sock finally lifting his head to stare at the creatures. The first of them had reached the ice and heedlessly scrambled onto the glassy surface. Its claws found no traction and it skidded wildly. It wrenched to a halt, screeching in a distorted wail. 

Zack could see the ice creeping up its long, spindly legs. It was almost like it was sinking under the surface of the ice. When its head sank beneath the surface, still wailing and snarling until the ice encased it, Zack knew he wasn’t hallucinating.

The next creature to brave the frozen lake suffered the same fate and was quickly followed by several more that could not stop or were shoved onto the ice by the rest of the milling horde behind them. Snarling and shrilling, the remaining monstrosities prowled the lakeshore for long moments before crawling back up the slope and melting slowly into the shadows of the forest.

Sock was still hanging there, unmoving, lungs heaving like billows, when the last of them had vanished.

“Sock?” Zack prodded.

Nothing. He could have been alone in his own head if he weren’t floating in midair over an icy lake in the depths of hell.

 _“Sock!”_ Zack bellowed mentally. “Snap out of it, you useless excuse for a demon!”

The only response he got was Sock slowly losing altitude, sinking toward the devouring ice.

“Shit!” Zack couldn’t tell if it was shock or exhaustion, but if he didn’t snap the annoying little demon out of it, they were going to end up the same as those creatures. “Sock! Wake the hell up!”

No response and Zack could see his reflection in the ice now. His sneakers were dangerously close to the surface. “We have to find Jonathan!”

Sock blinked slowly, as if coming out of a deep sleep. “Jonathan?” he questioned faintly.

“We have to save him!”

Sock blinked again and shook Zack’s head. His breathing slowed and steadied. “Right.” His voice wavered just slightly.

“Good, now do you think we could get a little further away from the monster-eating ice?” Zack wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but would settle for just getting the hell away from this creepy as all get-go place.

Sock started and lifted them a little higher in the air. “Sorry,” he apologized.

“What were those?” Zack asked; a little surprised by the apology, he chose not to mention it.

Sock started drifting for a different part of the shore than where the horde had disappeared. “Hellbeasts,” He responded in a distracted tone, eyes scanning the woods on the shore for more of the monsters. “I think they’re remnants of nightmares or something like that. They’ll attack anything that moves. Thankfully they aren’t very smart, just vicious. I knew if we could just make it to the lake ahead of them, we’d be okay.” Sock glanced down at the ice.

Zack felt his heart skip a beat. Trapped beneath the ice was a woman, frozen with one hand eternally reaching for the surface she would never reach. Her eyes were alive and filled with horror.

Sock must have felt his dismay because he looked away and smiled humorlessly. “That’s why this isn’t a good place to find anyone.”

A chill ran through Zack. The thought of Jonathan, trapped in the ice—

Sock glided up to shore, warily examining the trees before he entered the shadows under them again.

Zack wished absently that he could help keep watch, but he wasn’t the one in control. He wanted to find Jonathan and get out of here, and if that meant being possessed by a demon, so be it.

Sock moved more cautiously now, eyes darting around constantly.

There was a kernel of fear lodged squarely under Zack’s breastbone, and he realized that it wasn’t entirely his own justifiable terror of hell, but was coming in part from his demonic controller.

It was evident in the way Sock moved, a bundle of wire-tight nerves on a hair trigger.

Suddenly, Sock jerked to a halt, eyes wide and head up. He inhaled deeply through Zack’s nose.

A familiar scent, one Zack wasn’t even aware he knew, filled his senses. It held some indefinable essence that spoke of Jonathan, flavored with the hint of his soap and shampoo. Zack wanted to wrap it around himself. Had he always known Jonathan smelled this good?

Sock’s smile curled Zack’s lips back from his teeth, and dismay filled Zack. No, he hadn’t. It was Sock who knew Jonathan’s scent intimately.

 _“Jonathan…”_ Sock breathed.

He rose higher in the air and darted toward the source of Jonathan’s scent.

There was no warning at all when they were bowled out of the air viciously. They hit the icy ground hard, pain skittering up Zack’s claw-marked arm.

Sock yelled and fought, kicking hard at the shaggy bulk looming over them.

A hard, calloused hand with clawed nails slapped across their mouth. “Shut up,” barked a harsh voice. “You wanna bring every bloody hellbeast in these damned woods down on our heads?”

Sock froze, panting harshly against their captor’s hand. Burnt sienna eyes glared back from a face muffled in fur hood and collar, only a narrow strip of skin showing. “Think you can stay quiet if I take my hand offa you? Both of you?” The voice dropped to a rasping whisper.

Sock nodded against the hand that covered the whole lower half of their face.

“That goes for your host too, boy? Let him answer now or I’d just as soon toss both of you into the frozen lake.”

Suddenly Zack had control of his own muscles. He swallowed and looked up into dark eyes, nodding slowly.

Grunting with satisfaction, the fur-shrouded figure took their hand away and rose. 

Cautiously, feeling very much like his body was strange and too heavy, Zack got to his feet. It was odd, but he’d gotten used to Sock flying everywhere.

Those hooded eyes regarded Zack for a long moment. He could all but see Sock twitching nervously in the back of his head, but for the moment, the demon was letting him have full control. Zack nodded polite thanks to the cloaked figure.

“Follow me. There are safer places to talk than a wood full of hellbeasts. Human, you’ll be safer if you let your demon buddy take over for now. He can dodge a hellbeast faster in the air than you can on the ground.”

Swallowing, Zack willingly let Sock take over his body again. One encounter with those things out of nightmares had been enough for him.

The stranger turned and with a strange loping bound, leapt into the lower branches, landing neatly on one and propelling themselves up to a higher one. They sprang from that branch to one in the next tree, using those clawed nails to hook a branch and swing up to a higher one. Sock blinked once, mouth twitching before taking off after the strangely graceful heap of furs.

They made it a good distance before they were attacked again, this time by a lone creature that looked like something out of a taxidermist’s fever dream. Sock managed to dodge it by ducking around the trunk of a tree, alerted by the rustle of several pairs of mismatched wings. Unfortunately, this one was quite good at flying and followed closely, sickle-clawed legs reaching for them. Perched on the narrow, featherless neck of a vulture, it had the head of an oversized crow, but with black pits where eyes should have been. That didn’t seem to bother it, because it took another swipe at them with two of its four taloned legs.

Yelping, Sock plummeted down, narrowly avoiding having the thing take their head off. He twisted in midair, coming up behind the beast. Rolling Zack’s body into a ball, Sock planted their sneaker-clad feet into the monster’s back and kicked hard. The force of the shove sent the winged creature careening into a tree and caused Zack’s back to thump painfully into another.

Sock made an annoyed noise and pushed off the tree. He was growling, the rumble vibrating in Zack’s chest. “I did not come this far to rescue Jonathan just for some brain-dead nightmare to try and stop me,” he hissed between clenched teeth. He kicked off the ground, straight for the monstrosity.


	5. Comfort is an Illusion

Zack wanted to scream in horror, but he was not the one in control. 

Sock grabbed onto the leading edges of two of the mismatched wings, using the weight of Zack’s body to drag the flailing thing to the snowy ground. Ungainly and lumpish as it was, it could only struggle vainly to get back in the air, taloned feet raking uneven furrows in the frozen ground, wings beating frantically against Zack’s sides.

They hurt, those blows. Zack winced internally, feeling the bruises bloom beneath his skin.

Sock seemed oblivious to the pain. Using his grip on the wings, Sock drew Zack’s knees up until they were kneeling heavily on the creature’s back, pinning the largest set of wings to the ground. Snarling, Sock let go of the wings they were holding and gripped the creatures narrow head, right above the spindly neck.

Zack felt the tensing of his muscles and knew what Sock was going to do in the instant before it happened. 

Sock jerked the monster’s head brutally to the left. The crunch and snap sounded too loud in Zack’s ears, amplified by the feel of the bones breaking like brittle sticks under his hands.

The beast went limp, sagging to the cold ground.

Sock hunched over the body, breathing in deep gulps. He seemed to be jittering with barely contained energy and a fierce _something_ that welled in Zack’s chest, bubbling under his sternum like lava. Zack didn’t know what it was, only that it was adding to the nausea that was twisting in his stomach.

“Sock,” he warned, glad that he wasn’t physically speaking. “I think I’m gonna puke.”

Sock straightened up, taking a deep breath and swallowing hard. “No. You’re not. It’s just reaction. It’ll pass,” his tone was quiet.

“Feel better, boy?”

Sock jerked, startled by the gravely voice so close. He look up into dark eyes and answered with surprised honesty. “No.”

There was a huff that might have been laughter. “C’mon. We need to move.”

Sock rose in the air, almost as wobbly as Zack felt. He quietly followed the fur-shrouded figure into the icy canopy again.

They continued on, their guide moving ever upwards until the branches seemed too small to support the weight of the leaping body.

“Any idea where we’re heading?” Zack asked Sock. “Are we walking... er, floating into a trap?”

Sock’s mental tone was pensive. “I— I don’t think so. We could have been killed easily earlier after that hellbeast attacked.” Sock glanced around quickly, “We’re headed away from the frozen lake and toward Jonathan and that’s all I really care about.”

There was something in Sock’s tone that made Zack swallow anything else he might have said.

Abruptly, the icy canopy ended. Their guide stopped, perched lightly on a branch no thicker than one of Zack’s fingers. Sock had nearly ventured out into the open before a clawed hand snagged him and pulled them back into the shelter of the tree-line.

Ahead, atop a rocky tower that could have been a stumpy sibling of those they had flown through earlier, was a building that Zack could have sworn looked just like his uncle’s cabin from when he was a kid; split-log walls and everything. He’d gone out there every summer until his uncle had died. The cabin was gone now, the land bought and the building torn down to make room for a modern, upscale lake-house, but it looked like every detail had been replicated in this building in the middle of hell. It even sat on a field of thick grass like the cabin had, overgrowth hanging over the edges of the rock plinth, sparkling with a thick layer of hoarfrost.

Sock made a small noise in the back of Zack’s throat and then shook his head rapidly, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Their guide let out a sharp bark of laughter. “This place will do a number on your heads, boys, but once you get past that, it makes for a comfortable hidey-hole. It reminds you of a place you felt safe, to lure you in.” One hand reached out and tugged a pinecone loose from the tip of a branch and sent it sailing out into the clearing.

Rocky protrusions shifted, revealing a luminous yellow eye the size of a bus. Thin tendrils whipped out, lightning-fast, to snatch the pinecone from the air. A cavernous maw opened at the base of the pillar, the whole clearing nothing but gnashing teeth and coiling tongue.

“What the...?” Zack blurted, both awed and horrified.

Sock flinched backward.

The pinecone vanished into the enormous mouth, which snapped shut with a thunderous boom. Barely a second later, the clearing looked completely undisturbed, icy grass and fallen pine needles belying what lurked beneath the surface. The tendrils withdrew and the eye drifted closed again.

“See why it makes a good place to hide, eh?” A cackle of laughter punctuated the words. “Any hellbeast what wanders too close ends up same as that pinecone.”

“How is that a good place to hide?” Zack demanded, shaken. “That thing would have us for a snack!”

Sock shook his head as if to clear it. “I don’t know,” he answered Zack, before repeating Zack’s question for the one who had led them here.

Those reddish-brown eyes glittered with amusement above the fur collar. “By being smarter than it is, of course. You saw that eye, right? There’s one on each side of the critter, waiting for the first sign of something moving in the clearing. So you don’t go in the clearing at all.”

“How—?” Zack began, irritated and more than a little afraid.

Sock brightened, cutting off Zack’s question before he could even finish it. “I get it! That overhang! It can’t see straight up, so that’s your way in.”

“Clever, boy.”

 

Zack realized Sock was right. The overhanging growth that topped the pillar would prevent the thing from seeing directly above it. “You’d have to come in from really high to make sure it doesn’t spot you coming.”

Sock nodded and shot straight up out of the last little bit of the icy canopy that shrouded them. He arced higher and higher until they were directly above the thing, the roof of the cabin just a blot of color against the frost-blighted green. Sock grinned widely and warned Zack, “Hold onto your stomach, jock-boy.”

It was like gravity had suddenly re-established its hold on them. They plummeted straight down like a boulder dropped from a plane. 

Zack could hear himself screaming, but Sock, in control of his vocal cords, was laughing gleefully.

Sock only slowed their plunge barely Zack’s own height from the ground, touching down on the crackling grass as lightly as a feather. “What a rush!” he crowed.

Zack wanted to throw up on his shoes and only made a strangled, inarticulate sound.

Craning his head, Sock looked for their guide.

A figure burst out of the canopy, driving strongly upward on wings that seemed to be made of smoke and shadow, trailing bits of darkness like dead leaves. Looping high above, their guide barrel-rolled and power dived straight down toward them. Pulling up abruptly, shadowy wings flared and clawed toes touched down lightly. A deep chuckle rumbled out of the fur-shrouded chest. “Toldja. Nothing to worry about.”

Sock was all but dancing with impatience. Zack could feel the agitated excitement of the demon bubbling in his veins. “He’s here. I can sense him.” Sock jittered in place, barely able to hold still.

For once, Zack agreed. He wanted to get to Jonathan and get out of here.

There was a hint of amusement in the eyes that regarded them. “I knew you were the one he was talking about.”

“Where is he?” Sock demanded, reaching out to grasp at the heavy furs the other wore.

Clawed hands plucked his fingers free. “Easy, boy. First we talk.”

Sock regarded their guide suspiciously. “About what?”

A disdainful snort puffed white vapor into the air. “About how there’s a live human in hell, with another wandering about with a demon wearing him like a skin coat.”

Zack gagged mentally, the unfortunate image searing itself into his brain, never to be forgotten.

Sock folded his arms and scowled. “No deal. Let me see Jonathan first to know he’s alright. You can have your explanations after that.” He huffed, lips pressed together in a thin line. “Not before.”

He got a glare in return but there was something of amusement in it. “Stubborn, aren’t you?”

Sock huffed and nodded. “I am. And if you want that explanation, I want to see Jonathan.”

“Fine.”

Zack could feel Sock’s entirely internal sigh of relief and echoed it. After that fight with the hellbeast and its abrupt ending, he had no desire for another fight. He could still feel the snap of the thing’s neck in his bones. He’d understood Sock was a demon, but now he really knew what that meant.

Their guide turned toward the cabin, shadow wings folding and fading from sight. The door shimmered and rippled at the first touch of a hand, becoming something that it hurt to look directly at, flickering through a hundred variations on a door in a split-second. 

Sock winced, holding up a hand to shield their eyes, but followed the other into the cabin.

Inside, the image stabilized again. Zack saw the familiar worn confines of his uncle’s cabin, an island of normalcy in the insanity that was hell. Sock also breathed a sigh of relief, lowering his hand and relaxing.

Zack wondered what Sock saw in this place. To Zack it was all the comforting rusticness of his uncle’s lakeside cabin, from the oversized carp mounted above the cheerily flickering fire in the fireplace to the bead curtain that separated the kitchen from the living area. There was the same old overstuffed chair he’d curled up in as a child and the ratty bearskin rug where he’d lain on the floor, coloring. It even smelled right, the thick pine scent and aromatic woodsmoke flavoring the air. 

“Tee?” a familiar voice called from the hallway. Jonathan stepped out, a wooden bat clenched in his hands. 

_”Jonathan!”_

Sock abandoned Zack’s body so fast that Zack was left reeling, staggering back and landing hard on his ass.

Dazed, Zack could only stare at Jonathan being tackle-hugged by Sock.

Sock wrapped himself around the teen, arms tight around his neck. Even from his spot on the floor, Zack could see Sock shaking.

Staggered, Jonathan steadied himself with a backwards step. His eyes were wide with surprise, but his arms automatically came up to support the demon all but dangling from his neck. “Sock?”

Sock made a small sound and nodded, his face still buried in the crook of Jonathan’s shoulder. He stayed that way until Jonathan shifted uncomfortably, moving to push Sock away.

Allowing himself to be pushed back to arm's-length, Sock eyed Jonathan critically. “Are you alright? No-one’s hurt you, right? I mean, you look okay, but demons can do all sorts of things you can’t see, you know? Nothing’s wrong; you feel alright? No dizziness? Nothing’s stung you or bit you—?”

“Sock, you’re babbling,” Jonathan cut in, one corner of his mouth quirking in a sardonic smile.

Sock sagged, but his answering smile was bright. “I’m just really, really glad you’re okay.”

Zack suddenly wanted to be elsewhere. Not just free of hell, but anywhere where he did not have to see the sheer relief and joy that filled Sock's face. The matching softening of Jonathan's expression only made it worse. He struggled to his feet.

Jonathan looked over Sock's shoulder and his blue eyes widened. "Melto?" His face went cold and hard. "What are you doing here?"

Zack couldn't get anything past the sudden constriction in his throat.

Sock glanced back at him and suddenly smiled. There was an edge of malice to it Zack didn't like. "Oh, Zack is here to help me rescue you. It's his fault you're here, after all. Before your time and still being alive and all." 

Zack could only swallow nervously, unable to refute the truth, and hating Sock for sharing that truth. "I--"

Before he could manage to dig himself any deeper, the demon Jonathan had called 'Tee' interrupted. "I don't personally care how or why you're here, I'd just very much like to know how you plan on sneaking two living humans out of hell undetected, boy." The burnt sienna gaze bored hard into Sock.

Zack felt something in his stomach sour and turn into a icy, hard lump. He _knew_ then, with utter certainty, just what Sock had planned. Cold swept over him, chilling as much as if he had actually fallen into the frozen lake. "He wasn't."


	6. Plots and Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this chapter, my laptop screen got broken and I had to have it repaired before I could post more! ~begs for forgiveness~

Zack let the cold fill him, numb the sting of having sussed out exactly what Sock’s plan was. He met Jonathan’s eyes fully for the first time. “He had to possess me to get me here. He told me that a live human in hell would be something attractive to demons, like something they can’t help but crave.” He drew a deep breath, all but quivering with the effort of keeping his voice level and calm. “He brought me here as a distraction while he possesses you and gets you safely out. In other words, I’m demon bait.”

Tee glanced over at him, but said nothing.

“What?” Jonathan’s eyebrows drew together in a scowl and he turned his attention to Sock.

To his credit, Sock could pull off a dumbfounded and wounded expression really well, Zack thought. The demon actually looked honestly stricken, green eyes wide with a look that could have been genuine horror if one didn’t know better.

“No!” Sock protested. He took a shaky step back from Jonathan’s glare, visibly shrinking under the weight of it. “No... please. It’s not like that. I wouldn’t do something like that, Jonathan.”

The numb ache in his core prompted Zack to bite back, “Not like that? What is it like then?”

Jonathan’s gaze flickered away from Sock for a moment, focusing on Zack.

Sock flinched, hunching in on himself. His lips were pressed together in a thin line and he looked sort of sick and small. Zack might have said defenseless if he hadn’t seen what Sock was capable of.

He didn’t appeal to Zack, though. His eyes were only for Jonathan’s stern frown. “I— Jonathan, I...” Sock swallowed and visibly nerved himself. “I needed him. The way he... the way you were— um, banished; it cut your link back to the real, the living world.” Sock gulped but continued grimly. “Without that link, you’d be stranded here, with no way out of hell. And you’re my anchor to the world, so even though I came after you, I couldn’t have gotten you out on my own. I needed him to be our anchor to reality. I wouldn’t... couldn’t leave him behind, because then we’d have _no_ way home.”

Zack felt the ice around his heart crack a little. Whatever else Sock was, homicidal demon or not, in this the sincerity was unmistakeable.

Jonathan saw it too, because the corner of his mouth quirked up, not in the sarcastic way Zack was used to, but something a lot closer to a real smile.

Tee snorted. "So then, you weren't planning on leaving either of them behind, so how were you planning on getting them out undetected, then?"

Sock looked down at his feet.

"Did you not have a plan then?"

"No!" Sock rebutted a little nervously. "I mean, yes, I have a plan, but why should I tell you?"

"So you don't have one, then."

Sock fidgeted anxiously, fingers crumpling the edge of his purple skirt. " _No!_ I do have one. I mean; it could be better, but I do have one! It's just, why should I tell you? I don't know you, and I have no reason to trust you." He crossed his arms and nodded in a way Zack thought looked suspiciously like a child trying to pass of an outrageous lie.

"Sock!" Jonathan protested.

Tee, on the other hand, laughed heartily. "So you're not an idiot after all, kid. Good. Trust is something that's in short supply here in hell. And believe it or not, that's a good thing. Most demons won't hesitate to abuse it."

Zack could see some of the tension leak out of Sock's posture. His shoulders sagged and he let out a sigh of relief. "I _do_ have a plan," he asserted tiredly. "I kind of had to make it up as I went along, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances."

"Maybe Tee could help," Jonathan opined, glancing sideways at Tee before returning his attention to Sock.

Sock shifted, and something told Zack that he wasn't about to share more than he had to. "No," Sock confirmed his thought with a firm shake of his head. "I have no reason to trust anyone other than myself at the moment, Jonathan."

"Good answer, boy." Tee put in. "Now, this is about the safest place to hide a living human, but even that won't keep the wolves from the door forever. Sooner or later, someone is going to catch wind of not one, but two live humans and then, isn't nowhere gonna be safe. You can't afford to rest long."

Sock blinked and Zack realized then just how weary he looked, green eyes dimmed and half-lidded, and narrow shoulders that remained bowed as if the weight of the world dragged down on them. He wasn't even floating anymore, both feet planted firmly on the split-log planks.

It was funny, because Zack had been the one actually doing things. Sock might have been in control, but it was Zack's body doing most of the work.

Tee must have caught his expression. Regarding Zack with a raised eyebrow, the demon chuckled mildly. "Do you think possession costs us nothing, boy? It costs us in energy to keep control over even a willing host. If the host fights us, it wears on us even more, until we have nothing left. The more powerful a demon, the longer they can keep control, but your boy over there is young yet. I would venture to guess you two have been doing nothing but constantly moving and fighting since you got here. He's probably nearing the end of his strength."

"That's enough." Sock lifted his head to shoot a tired glare at Tee, shoulders hunched inwards. "It doesn't matter. I'll keep going as long as it takes to get us—" He glanced at Zack. _"All_ of us— out of here."

"Sock...?" There was concern in Jonathan's soft question.

Zack ached to hear it. It hurt; the genuine worry Jonathan showed toward a demon, one Zack had heard urging Jonathan into his own death.

Sock managed a wobbly smile.

Judging by the look on Jonathan's face, it was a sad effort.

"It's fine." Sock reassured tiredly. "We need to get out of here quickly. Before anyone else figures out we're here. I'm a little surprised no one has noticed you yet."

Tee barked a laugh. "Why do you think he's here, boy? I'm not the only one who sensed a live human here, after all." Laughing again, Tee waved a hand to indicate the cabin. "Some others did come lookin' for him. The beast hasn't eaten so well in a long time."

Jonathan made a disgusted face at Tee.

Tee chuckled. "I'll help you get down from here, but after that, you're on your own."

A sudden gurgling wail came from the woods outside, cutting through the air like a knife.

"You'll have to move fast." Tee warned grimly. "Call that an early warning system. The hellbeasts are a-hunting, meaning there's someone come lookin'."

Sock drew himself up, back straight, shoulders tense and chin lifting. He glanced at Zack, the shadows under his eyes making the green of his eyes brighter. "Ready, jock-boy?" 

With a confused expression, Jonathan glanced between them.

Swallowing hard, Zack nodded and closed his eyes, not wanting to see Jonathan watching Sock take him over.

There was no sense of disorientation this time. Sock was moving as soon as he had taken control, with a threatening step towards Tee. "You drop him, I'll make sure you regret it," he growed. 

Snorting, Tee picked up Jonathan in one fur-clad arm. "Hold on, kid. I can't promise there won't be any turbulence."

Jonathan glared but hooked his arms around Tee's fur-shrouded neck. 

Sock opened the door, looking away from the stomach-churning properties of it, and Tee shot past them in a blur of shadow wings, driving upward with powerful wingbeats. Sock followed in their wake, arching high to stay out of the reach of the creature.

Tee slowed when they were safely out of range, shouting over the roar of wind in Zack's ears. "Which way, boy?"

Sock took a second to orient himself and pointed. "That way. Toward the rock towers!"

Tee nodded and powered in the direction Sock had indicated. Those shadow-wings were strong and damned fast, Zack thought; Sock was pushing hard to try and keep up.

Those eerie, wailing cries rose from the ice-shrouded forest beneath them, at first from several directions, then zeroing in on them. Sock didn't glance back, all his concentration on keeping up with the demon that carried Jonathan. 

Zack could feel Sock's weariness, now that he was aware of it. It echoed back to him, a distant sort of sensation, but familiar, like those days when he was so exhausted after practice that everything hurt, a leaden ache deep in his bones.

Tee suddenly barrel-rolled away from a winged hellbeast that had burst from the icy canopy. Zack could hear the demon's cursing, punctuated by Jonathan's startled yelp.

Sock bit back a curse of his own and arrowed toward the flying monstrosity, a thing of leathery wings and skinned flesh, raw-pink and red against the white snow. He arced above it and let gravity aid him down, driving Zack's sneakered feet into the back of the creature's head.

Stunned, it crumpled and plummeted back toward the trees, wings fluttering aimlessly.

Tee acknowledged them with a nod and resumed the interrupted flight.

Sock paused just long enough for a desperate gulp of freezing air before following.

The forest was thinning beneath them, rocky protrusions beginning to jut up through the snow. The air was warming too, a definite relief after the bone-numbing chill.

Light as a feather, Tee alighted on the top of one of the stones, still several feet above the treetops.

Jonathan was holding tightly onto Tee’s neck, somewhat green in the face. Tee let him down, and Jonathan bent to rest his hands on his knees, taking unsteady breaths and swallowing, like he was holding down vomit.

Tee turned to face them. "We're not far from the Sea of Pillars now, but we're at the very edge of my territory. You three will have to go on alone from here. I can offer a distraction for you, though. Wait here until you hear the hunt head away from you and then make for the Sea as fast as you can."


	7. Troubled Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with epic cover art by [cocaraccoon](http://cocoraccoon.tumblr.com) on tumblr in chapter one.

Sock nodded, hesitating briefly. "Why are you helping us?" he asked.

"Let's just say it's my good deed for the next century or so. It guarantees that I won't ever be transferred to earthbound duty like you, boy. We'll leave it at that." Tee chuckled. "Mind you stay clear of the fog. It's nasty stuff. If you have to rest, don't land on a pillar with a fire."

"Why?" Jonathan asked, straightening up. 

Sock answered with a shudder. "The boss told me about the Sea of Pillars. The people around the fires are the very worst of the gluttonous. They can't escape the pillars because of the fog, but there's nothing there for them to consume. We'd look all kinds of tasty to them."

"TMI," Zack put in, nauseated anew.

Jonathan, even though he couldn't hear Zack, looked like he agreed. "Let's not do that then."

Sock laughed weakly. "Let's not. Tee, thank you. You didn't have to help us."

Tee smiled. "Be ready to get goin'. I'll give you what kinda head-start I can." Shadow-wings unfurled and Tee leapt back into the air, headed back the way they had come.

The three of them waited tensely, listening hard. 

Suddenly the tenor of those eerie wails changed, becoming wilder, interspersed with frantic growls and howls. The clamor receded, back toward the lake.

Sock took a deep breath. "We need to go." He turned and dropped into a half-crouch, presenting Zack's back to Jonathan. "Hang on. I'm going to be moving as fast as I can."

Jonathan obeyed, wrapping his arms around Zack's neck. "This is all kinds of weird," he complained under his breath.

"I won't disagree." Sock stood, Zack's taller height lifting Jonathan completely off the ground. "Legs around my waist, Jonathan."

Grumbling softly, Jonathan did as directed, wrapping his legs around Zack's torso from behind. 

Sock looped his hands under Jonathan's thighs and took off like a rocket.

Jonathan's arms tightened reflexively. "Really starting to hate all this flying," he growled in Zack's ear.

Zack kind of agreed with the sentiment. If the circumstances had been less life-threatening, he might have enjoyed the sensation of flight, but as it was, all he could associate it with was trying to stay alive in the middle of hell.

Sock was silent, not making a smart-ass comment like Zack was expecting.

Concentrating, he could sense Sock's exhaustion bearing down like a leaden cloud. Sock seemed to be focused on nothing else but fleeing, all his energy reserved for that.

They broke free of the icy forest, and Sock drove upward abruptly, skimming over the first billows of the noxious brown murk that ebbed and swelled around the pillars. He didn't go as high as the tops of the rock spires, staying low, just above the fog. Their flight was slower, though in part Zack could attribute that to the extra weight of Jonathan.

Zack was uncomfortable with how low they were, the murk just brushing the toes of his sneakers. He quietly urged Sock to fly a little higher.

Sock's reply was a weary sigh and a mental shake of the head, but he deliberately rose a bit in the arid air.

They flew on in silence above the billowing brown, Jonathan's breathing harsh in Zack's ear. 

Zack realized Sock was slowing again, drifting lower. He knew then what he had to do.

"Sock, I don't want to fight with you, especially right now, but I will if you don't stop for a breather. We're too close to the fog, and we're carrying Jonathan." Zack was firm. Tee had driven home just how much of his own energy Sock was expending, and if he wore himself out completely before they reached safety... well, Zack really didn't want to think about that.

He felt Sock's emphatic denial though Sock said nothing, either aloud or privately to him.

"We're here to save Jonathan," Zack reminded Sock. "We can't do that if you don't have enough strength. You have to stop for a rest."

He was sure that it was Jonathan's name that did it.

Sock nodded once and flew higher until he was above the rock plateaus. All the nearest ones were topped with fires and the skeletal figures, that only now Zack realized were watching them with atavistic hunger. He shuddered mentally at the empty pits of eyes that followed their flight.

Sock spotted a pillar, lower than the others, that did not have a fire, or leering skeletons around said fire. Wavering a little, he made for it. The landing was rough, Sock stumbling before recovering his balance. He let Jonathan down carefully.

"Mel— Sock?" Jonathan asked, a frown creasing his brows.

Sock didn't answer, so Zack risked trying to speak. "He's exhausted. Needs to rest a little."

Sock scowled. "I'll be fine."

Zack didn't try forcing words out again, directing blistering scorn at Sock. "You are not. I'm not letting you get all of us killed because you're too stupid to know when to rest."

"Shut up, pecs-for-brains," Sock retaliated sourly.

Zack knew he had won the day then. "Get out of my head and take a break. Nothing can get to us here."

"Demons can fly, or did you forget that?"

"No, but they have to find us first and we can see them coming. That gives you a little time to recover." Zack reasoned.

Suddenly, he was alone in his own mind. Sock sat slumped beside him, arms resting on his upraised knees and hands dangling limply. He responded to Jonathan's concerned repeat of his name with a tired smile. "I'm fine. Just need to rest for a few minutes before we get out of here."

Jonathan regarded him doubtfully, but nodded before turning his attention to Zack.

Zack swallowed, mouth suddenly dry under the intense scrutiny of those blue eyes. He wanted more than anything to make it so the whole thing had never happened. "I'm sorry," he apologized quietly. "I-I overheard him trying to convince you to kill yourself. I was trying to protect you."

"By sending me to hell?" Jonathan's biting, sardonic tone made him flinch.

"That was an accident!" Zack protested. "I was trying to get rid of him. It would have worked..."

"— If I hadn't interfered." Jonathan finished for him.

"N— yes," Zack agreed weakly. "I didn't expect you to try and stop me."

Jonathan shook his head, a rueful smile curving up his lips. "I don't think I did either. I just... reacted."

Sock glanced up, his green gaze a little pained. "We need to get moving," was all he said.

"No," Jonathan cut him off with a sharp slash of his hand. "You need to rest. I can see how tired you are."

"I'm perfectly fine," Sock began, lips pursing in a pout.

Jonathan cut him off again, this time with a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, you idiot."

Zack could hear the genuine affection in Jonathan's voice and forced himself not to react, even though it cut into him like a knife.

Sighing, Sock let himself go lax under Jonathan's touch. "Just for a little while," he said, a small smile growing on his lips. He cautiously rested a hand over Jonathan's on his shoulder, the look on his face one of someone who was expecting to have something they wanted snatched away.

Jonathan didn't pull his hand away, instead tightening his grip.

Zack looked away this time, swallowing the hurt. It was clearer now than ever that, while Sock might be a demon sent to drive Jonathan to kill himself, there was a genuine bond of affection between them. No wonder Jonathan had reacted as he did, to save Sock.

It hurt; a great white-hot spike of pain buried deep in his gut. He'd only just realized just how much he'd been attracted to Jonathan, and now that he had, he'd come to understand that he'd lost him before he ever had a chance. 

He drew his legs up and curled around the hard knot of hurt, determined not to show it. He buried it deep, knowing that Sock would have access to his surface thoughts when he took Zack over again. There was no way he wanted Sock to know that. Even though he was sure Sock might suspect the truth, better only suspicion, rather than confirmation.

Desperate for anything to look at the was not Jonathan or Sock, Zack stared into the distance, eyes skimming over the pillars and the skeletal figures atop them. Hell was nothing like what he expected, even with his desperate reading binge while he had been trying to figure out a way to save Jonathan from his demonic tormentor. The frozen lake, the endless field of pale flowers and wraiths and these, the stone towers in a field of toxic fog... all were images he wouldn't have associated with hell. Most of the concepts of hell he'd run across in his reading had been of torture and pits of hellfire where sinners burned for eternity.

Not that the image of the starving skeletons or people frozen in ice was all that much better; but it was still unexpected, and almost more reassuring than what he'd been expecting for that.

Movement caught his eye and Zack squinted, seeing a tiny dark spot moving through the greenish sky, safely above the range of either the fog or the leering skeletal figures. It veered back and forth, obviously flying a search pattern. Zack was pretty sure he knew exactly what... or rather who, it was searching for. It was still a good distance away, but they were going to have to move fast to avoid the searcher.

"Trouble," he told Sock and Jonathan, pointing toward the veering dot in the sky. "Looks like someone's on our trail already."


	8. Gone to the Dogs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure anyone is still reading this fic… And it’s my fault for trying to do too much this month. (AKA Sockathan week as well as the W2H Gift exchange)
> 
> Aaaannnnyyyyyway, Have a new chapter, all four of my faithful readers.

Jonathan stood, narrowing his eyes. "They're searching. They don't know where we are, but they're flying a grid. They'll find us eventually."

Sock wearily hauled himself to his feet. "I'm ready."

Jonathan turned to look him over critically, a crease forming between his eyebrows. "No, you're really not," he frowned. "But in spite of that, time isn't on our side."

Zack hated to admit it, but he had to agree with Jonathan's assessment. The rest hadn't seemed to have done more than a little for Sock. There were still dark shadows under Sock's vivid green eyes and his whole frame drooped tiredly. "I think we can spare a few more minutes," he amended quietly. "I think we have to."

Jonathan nodded in agreement, his lower lip caught between his teeth. "Yeah."

Sock shook his head. "We don't have time. We'll have to be on the ground once we reach the labyrinth canyons. That will slow us down, but I can afford to rest a little more then. We'll have help to watch our backs."

"We will?" Zack asked.

Despite the tiredness in his eyes, the smile Sock gave Zack was bright and sly. "Oh, yes, jock-boy, we will."

Sock straightened up, squaring his shoulders. "You ready to fly?"

"No, but not like we have a choice." Jonathan snorted.

Zack only nodded, taking a bracing breath and closing his eyes.

Sock opened them again. "Time to move," he told Jonathan, dropping down into a crouch so Jonathan could wrap arms around his neck again.

Jonathan sighed but did as expected. Once he was secure on Zack's back, Sock took off, dropping down to the level of the noxious fog and skimming as close to the pillars as he could manage, often coming so close that Zack's shredded sleeve brushed against the rock. 

Zack knew Sock was doing his level best to keep out of their pursuer's sight. As the level of the fog dropped, so did Sock, staying just above the roiling mist. He was pushing hard for speed now, darting and weaving among the stone towers with reckless abandon.

Zack could feel Sock's steel resolve, and realized it wasn't carelessness, but flagging energy that drove Sock to such recklessness.

The fog was thinning now and Zack could almost see the desolate ground beneath.

A break in the toxic murk was enough for Sock. "Take a deep breath and close your eyes," he warned Jonathan, before drawing as deep a breath as Zack's lungs would allow. Sock plunged down through the opening in the murk, skimming barely a handspan above the barren, seared-looking rock.

Zack felt a tendril of the fog slide along his bare arm, not cool like one might expect, but warm and leaving behind a sensation like fire-ants stinging his skin. He might have yelped if Sock hadn't been determinedly holding his breath.

Sock twisted like a ferret to dodge another streamer of the fog and then they were through and into open air. Warm and too dry, but blessedly free of the nasty murk. Sock dragged in a heaving breath.

Zack heard Jonathan gasp a breath by his ear and cough harshly.

Sock hesitated, glancing over his shoulder. "Jonathan?" he asked worriedly. "You didn't breath any of that, did you?"

Jonathan coughed again, a dry rattle. “M’fine.” he rasped. “Just not used to holding my breath that long.”

Sock wasn’t convinced. “Please tell me you didn’t breathe any of that!” He held up Zack’s arm for example. Zack stared in dismay. Where the fog had trailed over his skin; bright red welts bloomed. Zack hissed in pain, the sound actually escaping his lips.

Jonathan offered a half-smile. "I didn't. My throat's a little dry is all," he reassured. Sheepishly, he shook his head. "Honestly, I've been afraid to drink or eat anything here."

Sock shot Jonathan an incredulous look.

"What?" Jonathan flushed in embarrassed anger. "I'm in hell, how the heck am I supposed to know what's safe for a person who's still alive to eat? What about that chick who ate a pomegranate?"

Sock chuckled. "Probably safest for you anyway. I'll find you something safe to drink at least. And that's from Greek myth, not hell."

"Oh."

Zack had to interrupt. "I saw things when we first got down here that looked like they came straight from the Greek version of the underworld. So maybe that was for the best."

Sock laughed. "Maybe you're right." He relayed Zack's words to Jonathan.

Jonathan barked a laugh. "Probably."

Out of the corner of his eye, Zack spotted the beginnings of the twisting gullies. He prodded Sock, whose attention was still on Jonathan.

Sock glanced down and smiled, alighting on the dry, crumbly soil. He let Jonathan down and let go of his hold on Zack's body more gracefully than the last time, taking a step forward, while Zack remained stationary.

Zack reveled in the feel of his body reacting to his own commands for just a moment, rolling his hands into fists and stretching like a sleepy cat. He knew he’d be on edge later, when Sock wasn’t with him to fly them out of danger, but for now he just relaxed.

Sock had both feet planted on the ground and his shoulders drooped, but he smiled reassuringly at Jonathan. “Just tired,” he assured the blond teen. “A little time without having to possess someone will fix me up, promise.”

Zack looked away from the concern in Jonathan’s eyes, staring down into the pitch-black depths of the nearest arroyo. Their path out of hell _‘lived’_ there?

Sock caught his look and grinned suddenly. He put both pinkie fingers in the corners of his mouth and released the loudest, most piercing whistle Zack had ever heard. The sound reverberated off the canyon walls, seeming to not to fade at all, but to grow stronger with each shrilling rebound. Zack winced and even Jonathan covered his ears.

At last the sound echoed away down the endless gullies. Sock waited patiently, a smile spreading on his face.

Jonathan took his hands away from his ears and looked askance at Sock. "What—?" he began.

His plaint was interrupted by a thunderous sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, rolling out of the depths like an oncoming storm.

Sock was laughing, his mirth almost drowned out by the noise... that sounded almost like _barking...?_

Zack took a wary step back.

It came thundering out of the arroyo, taller than Zack by a good four feet, six ruby eyes, three slavering mouths and... one madly wagging, serpentine tail. It plowed into Sock, knocking the much smaller demon to the ground.

Jonathan made a startled noise beside Zack.

The beast wasn't harming Sock, though. All three mouths were vying with each other to cover Sock with copious amounts of demonic dog drool. For that's what it was, an absolutely enormous black and red dog with three heads. It looked almost like a doberman, if dobermans came with three heads and exceeded ten feet in height. 

Sock was laughing gleefully, pushing playfully at the monster's muzzles. "Who's a good girl? Who's a good puppy?" He caught the middle head between his palms and planted a kiss on the huge wet nose. “Oh, yes, who’s a good little Desi? You are, oh, yes you are, you’re such a good girl!”

After lavishing attention of both of the other heads, Sock shoved at the massive creature’s chest. “Off, girl.”

Surprisingly enough, the three-headed creature backed off, plonking it’s furry butt down and panting happily. 

Sock rose to his feet, steadying himself with a hand on one huge black and red shoulder. He turned and grinned at Jonathan, not caring about the streaks of faintly phosphorescent saliva covering his face and glueing his bangs up in ludicrous spikes. “This is Desdemona,” he introduced, still with a smile wide enough to split his face in half. He reached up and obligingly the rightmost head bent so he could scratch under its chin. “This is Des.” He let the middle head, this one with a small splash of white fur right between ruby eyes, shove the other aside for its own share of scratches. “This pretty girl is Dee.” He reached up to hug the neck of the left head, this one with a ragged ear and slightly crossed eyes. “And this is Mona.”

Zack shut his gaping jaw with a snap. "Y-you weren't kidding about having help to watch our backs, were you?" he managed with a shaky laugh. That dog was big enough to eat Zack in two bites and have Jonathan for dessert.

"Nope!" Sock said, popping the 'p' with a grin. "Desi, here, is a very good guard dog. Aren't you, Desi-wesi?" he cooed up at the massive dog.

All three heads panted, and the middle head darted down to bestow another slobbery kiss on the much smaller demon.

Sock chuckled and shoved the drooling muzzle away. His smile as he turned to face Zack was fey and maliciously cheery. "Now we get to the fun part and the reason why you're here."


	9. Dog Days

Zack took a wary step back. "What do you mean?"

Sock glanced up at the huge dog. "Scent, girl!" he commanded, pointing a finger at Zack.

All three heads alerted on Zack, scarlet eyes pinning him were he stood.

Zack swallowed nervously as the cerberus padded closer, hoping his knees would continue to hold him up.

The middle head whuffled his hair, wet nose pressing against his scalp. The head on the right was investigating his chest and arms, sticking its nose in his armpits and licking his claw-scarred arm. The head with the ragged ear went for something somewhat... lower, and a cold nose pressed against his crotch.

Zack yelped, but was afraid to move. After a few more seconds of being thoroughly investigated by something with far too many sharp teeth for his sense of comfort, the middle head sneezed wetly into his hair and the beast backed off, looking happily at Sock.

"Good puppy," Sock praised. "Didja get a good whiff? Huh, didja?"

The monster dropped her forequarters to the ground, butt in the air and long, snake-like tail waving rapidly. The head on the left barked once, a deep, resonating sound.

Sock's grin widened. "Good girl." He turned back to Zack. "This is the reason I left your jacket behind, y'know. Once a cerberus has your scent, they can track it no matter where. Heaven, hell, the living world, other places... they can find it anywhere. You still have a strong connection to the living world, while Jonathan's was broken by the botched exorcism; so that will tell her where you belong and your recent scent on the jacket will lead her there." 

"Oh..." Zack managed an uncertain smile. "I guess you did have a plan, after all."

Sock shrugged, his smile faltering a little. "I did. It's not the best plan, but it's all I could come up with in the time we had. There was no guarantee that Jonathan would stay safe for very long. We'll be taking the long way back to the living world and that's almost as dangerous as anything else we've run into down here."

"The long way?" Jonathan asked.

Sock sighed, losing the rest of his smile. "One of the things you have to understand, same as heaven isn’t really built up on a bank of clouds; hell isn’t really,” he paused and pointed down at his feet. “Underground. Heaven and hell exist as separate planes, I guess you could call them. The living world is its own plane and there are others, even stranger than heaven or hell. Most of the travel between them is the same way I come and go, sort of twisting the planes and stepping through. But there are a few places where they are anchored, where heaven, hell, the living world and all the other planes connect. They have different names, but they all touch. The one I know of is called the red road. 

“It's the way into hell and a lot of those... _other_ places. It's — uh — kinda... well, okay, _really_... weird. And I think I may have mentioned the danger part already." Sock fidgeted, fingers of one hand curling into the black fur of the creature he called 'Desi.' "It's not usually used for travel the opposite way, at least. Most of us have other ways to get to the living world... or the other places."

"But it will get us out of here?" Jonathan's gaze seemed to hold Sock in thrall, the demon unable to look away, Zack noted.

Sock swallowed and nodded. "If we're careful, yes."

Jonathan nodded. “Then we go.” His resolute expression sent a new pang through Zack’s chest and he turned his face away. 

He came face to face with a large snout and a pair of slightly crossed ruby eyes. The cerberus whuffled happily and slimed his cheek with an oversized tongue. Zack flinched back, nearly landing on his ass, but managed to catch himself.

The head Sock had dubbed ‘Mona’ tilted to one side, ears canted out sideways and the tip of that pink tongue peeking out between its teeth. For a moment, despite its size, the creature bore every resemblance to a puppy confused by something new.

Glancing back at Jonathan, Zack let himself feel a little daring and held out his hand to the monstrous dog.

Mona blinked and one scarlet eye went out of focus, rolling slightly. A sudden bark assaulted his ears and then the head was lunging forward to cover him with drool. Zack yelped and this time did go down, helped by an all-too-friendly muzzle. A massive paw planted itself on his chest and Mona proceeded to slobber happily all over him.

_“Ack!”_ Zack struggled, shoving at teeth as long as his hand in an attempt to get Mona to back off. “Off! Get _off_ me!! Gross! Stop drooling on me!”

There was laughter from nearby and Zack managed to shove Mona’s head away long enough to see Jonathan bent over in hilarity, one hand clutching his stomach. It was only the second time he’d ever seen Jonathan laugh, and it was a startling contrast to his normal demeanor.

Sock dropped into a loose crouch near Zack, green eyes sparkling merrily. “Aww, she likes you!” he cooed cheerfully.

Still shoving hard at the giant muzzle, Zack shot Sock a glare. “Fuckin’ hilarious. Get her off me before she drowns me in enthusiasm!”

“Or _drool,”_ Jonathan put in with a wheeze, eyes crinkled at the corners with the widest smile Zack had ever seen him wear. He’d have appreciated it more if it wasn’t coming at the expense of whatever bits of dignity he might have had left.

“Let him up, Desi.” Sock finally commanded.

With a disappointed whine, the cerberus backed off, flopping down on its belly like it had been scolded.

Zack heaved himself to his feet, trying to not think about the saliva that was drying sticky on his skin. He scowled at the creature. “Oh, don’t even. My cat does better puppy eyes.”

Jonathan snorted laughter again, and Zack relented, patting Mona’s head. For a ten-foot-plus tall, three-headed monster, she wasn’t a bad dog.

Sock straightened up, wobbling a little. He shaded his eyes and looked back toward the Sea of Pillars. “We should get moving. I don’t know how much time that last trick bought us, but not long enough.”

He whistled again and Desdemona raised all three heads. “Down, girl.”

“Uh, Sock, she is down.” Jonathan put in, gesturing at the prone creature.

Puffing out his cheeks with an annoyed huff, Sock favored Jonathan with a flat, unamused stare. “Not really. Down,” he commanded again.

Suddenly, the cerberus was no longer the size of a city bus, dwindling down to just the size of a steroid-enhanced draft horse. All three heads looked to Sock, whining for approval.

With a pat on the nearest snout, Sock lifted himself in the air, still a little shakily, and settled right behind the shoulders. He held out his hand to Jonathan. “Get on. Even tracking, she’s still way faster than walking.”

Jonathan frowned for a minute before reaching out and accepting the outstretched hand. “I forgot you’re solid here,” he admitted. 

Sock helped Jonathan up behind himself. His mouth quirked up in a wry smile. “Sometimes.” His gaze fell on Zack. “Get on, Jock-boy, we still have a long way to go.”

Zack carefully clambered up on one of Desdemona's folded hind legs and hauled himself up onto her back.

"Up!" Sock commanded.

Desdemona rose to her feet and grew in size again, stopping just short of her previous size.

Zack grimaced at the feel of her expanding beneath him, his legs at an increasingly uncomfortable angle across the breadth of her back.

Sock grinned back at them. “Hang on.” He whistled. "Track, Desi!"

With a thunderous bark, Desdemona surged off down the canyons.

Zack yelped and grabbed hold of Jonathan's hoodie to maintain his balance. 

Jonathan made a choked noise. "Augh, dude, can we not strangle me here?" Jonathan had looped his arms around Sock’s hips and had a firm grip on the short fur of the cerberus's ruff. He turned his head enough to give Zack a sour look. "Hold on to me and not my clothes."

Sheepishly, Zack let go of his death grip on the gray fabric and wrapped his arms around Jonathan's waist instead. He might have enjoyed the sensation more if Sock hadn't turned his head and fixed him with a sharp look. 

Sock smiled, all sharp teeth and stretched cheeks. It was not a friendly expression.

It was obvious that his feelings for Jonathan had not gone unnoticed. But he wasn't letting go, just to ease Sock's temper. Zack returned the stare stoically. 

At last Sock turned his attention away, his grin giving way to pinched lips.

Zack breathed something that wasn't quite a sigh of relief. After seeing what Sock could do, he'd developed a healthy respect for the amount of damage the small demon could wreak. Add to that something that might make him mad, and Zack would lay no odds on his own chances of surviving the encounter.

"What part of hell is this?" he heard Jonathan quietly ask Sock. "It doesn't seem very hellish to me."

Sock's voice was soft, barely audible. "The labyrinthian canyons. I don't know much about them, only that you never, ever want to lose your way in them. Only creatures that I know of that don't get lost in them are cerberus, like Desi here."

Desdemona urffed softly, loping with her middle head stretched out, sniffing, like she was actually tracking Zack's scent in the dry air.

The further they went the darker it became, the canyon walls reaching high into the greenish air and leaving them in deep shadows. There was no wind but eerie wails whispered down the arroyo’s passages. From somewhere in the dark distance, the sound of pebbles rattled. Zack shivered in spite of himself.

It wasn’t enough that there were demons after them, attracted to living and, in Sock’s words, “mostly uncorrupted” souls, but there was no telling what lurked down here. Desdemona’s presence was a reassurance, but there could be things that could take her down with no problems. Zack had seen one of them with his own eyes. There was no telling what could be worse than that hiding in the shadows.

It seemed the deeper that they went into the maze, the faster Desdemona’s loping gait got. Zack had to tighten his grip around Jonathan’s waist to maintain his seat, nevermind what Sock might think. Des let out a deep, rumbling ‘urf’ and alerted, pointed ears pricked. Mona yipped and all at once, the cerberus broke into a run.

Even Sock yelped, knocked back into Jonathan’s chest by the sudden increase in speed. 

“Whoa,” Jonathan yelled in surprise. “What’s gotten into her?”

“Don’t know,” Sock leaned forward in the cradle of Jonathan’s arms, resting a hand on the back of the middle head. “Desi? Calm down, girl.”

Dee rumbled, but if anything, the pace increased.

The cerberus careened around a corner, taking it so close that Mona’s ragged ear clipped the rocks. The leftmost head yiked a bit, but the creature did not even waver.

The rocks were growing lighter ahead, revealing the path they were on was narrowing. Rock walls were brushing against Desdemona’s powerful shoulders, protrusions scraping along her sleek coat and snagging on Jonathan and Zack’s jeans.

Desdemona cornered abruptly, claws scrabbling for purchase. Mona took a much more solid blow and looked dazed.

They broke into the open, the greenish radiance that was the sky all but blinding after the darkness of the canyons. Zack squinted through painful tears, only able to see something that threw back the overpowering light and something huge and dark looming, far too close.

Desdemona screeched to a splay-legged halt, all three heads, even Mona’s dazed one, erupting into a volley of fierce barking and vicious growls. Deeper growls answered her threats.

Zack scrubbed at his eyes and blinked away the dazzle. He wished he hadn’t.


End file.
